East Duplin rallies past Wildcats 9-6

Published: Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 09:45 AM.

The game also saw tempers boil over with 8:53 left after a play that saw at least one player throw a punch and several players come off the bench before the coaches and officials restored order.

East Duplin’s Monquel Baker, who rushed for a game-high 74 yards from the fullback spot, was ejected along with Richlands’ Will Hudson. Both will have to sit out the next game. East Duplin is at Clinton next Friday night while Richlands plays host to Croatan.

“Their player punched ours and we retaliated,” Snider said, adding he was disappointed with the fracas. “It’s a rivalry to begin with. They’re frustrated. We’re frustrated because we see an unevenly officiated ballgame.”

Holley said he had his back to the field and was talking to the offensive line when tempers flared.

“I’m disappointed because that’s not what I’m about,” he said. “I know that’s not what he (Snider) is about. Play ‘til the whistle blows and you help a man up and tell him you’ll be back the next play.”

BEULAVILLE — The annual border brawl between Richlands and East Duplin had just about everything you’d expect in a football feud — and more — in the season opener for both teams Friday night.

There were two field goals by Tolson Jeffrey, who had rushed to join his Wildcat teammates by halftime after playing in a soccer game a few hours earlier.

There were, of course, a host of hard hits to go along with the occasional friendly shove along with a more serious fracas that resulted in one player from each team being ejected.

And there were mistakes, by both teams as well as the officials.

But when it was all over, East Duplin did what it seems to almost always do when it faces the Wildcats. The Panthers won, rallying from a 6-0 deficit to beat Richlands 9-6 on a 23-yard run by backup fullback Kenneth Arrington with 2:36 left.

“Our team was down and I knew I needed to step up as the second-string fullback since our fullback got ejected,” Arrington said. “I saw the hole, I saw the opportunity and I took it for my team.

“It was a real frustrating game for us. We came out (and) at first I admit we thought it was going to be easy, but we learned firsthand that it wasn’t. We just had put a game face on in the second half and make something happen.”

The win was the sixth straight by Panthers over the Wildcats — and 22nd in the last 26 meetings. But Richlands and first-year coach Justin Snider made the Panthers sweat until the end when Ben Jackson’s almost-perfect pass slipped off Ethan Horne’s outstretched fingertips at the 3-yard line with 6 seconds left.

“We could have folded the tent and could have been 14, even 21-0 there,” East Duplin coach Battle Holley said. “The defense just kept playing.”

In fact, it was a defensive battle almost from beginning to end on a humid night that ended with a heavy downpour moments after the game ended. The teams combined for just six first downs and 80 yards total offense in the first half, which include seven punts.

But East Duplin finished with 220 yards total offense, 208 on the ground, while Richlands had just 95 yards.

Richlands grabbed a 6-0 lead in the third quarter on field goals of 32 and 43 yards by Jeffrey, who hit the first with 5:48 left and the second with 3:13 remaining. Both came after East Duplin fumbles at the Richlands 34 and East Duplin 18.

“He split sports tonight,” Snider said. “He did a great job.”

The first field goal was aided by a 9-yard run on fourth-and-6 when Jamar Harrington leaped to snare a high snap on a punt and opted to take off around the right side and got the first down. Each time, however, the Panthers were able to keep Richlands out of the end zone.

East Duplin got its first points thanks to its defense. Facing a fourth-and-17 at its 2, Richlands opted to take a safety inside of punting out of the end zone with 7:09 left in the game.

“It was a pretty easy call,” Snider said. “We were backed up. It was punt and on a heck of a kick they get it at the 40 with a chance to return it, or we take the safety, hold onto a four-point lead and kick from the 20 where Tolson can kick.

“He’s kicking the ball 60 yards. So obviously it was a no-brainer.”

The Panthers took the lead on their ensuing possession, which began at midfield after a 24-yard return by Nigel McCoy and saw East Duplin convert a fourth-and-7 at the Richlands 35-yard line on a 9-yard run by Dauviea Anderson.

Then on third-and-4, Arrington broke free on a trap to the left and raced into the end zone. Mason Albertson added the PAT.

“We were gassed,” Snider said.

Holley said the Panthers had run the trap Arrington scored on several times but the backs weren’t running it correctly.

“We were bending into it at the line of scrimmage instead of just staying straight through, and that’s something we talked about,” Holley said.

Richlands managed to drive from its 20 to the East Duplin 33 in the final 2:35 without a timeout, the Wildcats having used two because of personnel issues.

“It would have been nice to have (those two timeouts),” Snider said. “But that ball (to Horne) was that close.”

Along with the mistakes by both teams, the officials also had a miscue, giving East Duplin an extra down — a mistake that led to a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty against the Richlands coaches.

After East Duplin recovered its own fumble on second-and-8 from the Richlands 40, it should have been third down. But the down marker never switched, and the officials ignored the Richlands coaches trying to point out the mistake.

While East Duplin didn’t score on the series, the Panthers did give the ball up on Richlands’ 10, which ended up leading to the safety.

“They were not much help tonight,” Snider said of the officials. “They wouldn’t give us an answer for anything. They wouldn’t give us an explanation, wouldn’t talk to us. They just told us we were wrong.”

The game also saw tempers boil over with 8:53 left after a play that saw at least one player throw a punch and several players come off the bench before the coaches and officials restored order.

East Duplin’s Monquel Baker, who rushed for a game-high 74 yards from the fullback spot, was ejected along with Richlands’ Will Hudson. Both will have to sit out the next game. East Duplin is at Clinton next Friday night while Richlands plays host to Croatan.

“Their player punched ours and we retaliated,” Snider said, adding he was disappointed with the fracas. “It’s a rivalry to begin with. They’re frustrated. We’re frustrated because we see an unevenly officiated ballgame.”

Holley said he had his back to the field and was talking to the offensive line when tempers flared.

“I’m disappointed because that’s not what I’m about,” he said. “I know that’s not what he (Snider) is about. Play ‘til the whistle blows and you help a man up and tell him you’ll be back the next play.”